Certainty. I also can’t stand it when someone calls you and then says, “Wait, I need to put my headphones in.”
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Change of mind
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Carelessness of truth and others.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 197 →
Rafael Nadal
Spanish professional tennis player, 2001–2024
Selfishness and no respect for the others.
An inability to see the other side.
Adrian Dunbar
Irish actor
Needless aggression and bullying.
More from Rory Stewart
View profile →Scrappy, quixotic, curious.
Having somebody pull my judo trousers down at a competition when I was seven. And finding I wasn’t wearing any pants.
Living in a ski resort.
On X, I am regularly called a traitor, a fraud, a grifter, a weakling, a narcissist, a coward and a child molester.
The US election showed me that I had trapped myself in wishful thinking.
I become very anxious if I think I’ve hurt someone.
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Zack Polanski, Nancy Pelosi, Malala Yousafzai, Keir Starmer, Bob Schieffer, Barack Obama
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